Special report from the field: The women of the Islamic State in Iraq

By Susan Schulman

Volume 22, Issue 1, pages 2-13

There are a great many unaddressed grievances that persist in Iraq to this day – grievances whose roots reach back to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and which ultimately led to the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in 2014. Even though the Islamic State was ousted in 2017, these grievances have not gone away. In this special report from the field, American photo-journalist Susan Schulman presents the distressing testimony and images of the families that once supported the Islamic State in Iraq and who are now shunned by Iraqi society as a result.

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Towards a theory of diaspora formation through conflict deterritorialization

By Élise Féron and Sofiya Voytiv

Volume 11, Issue 3, pages 210-224

Building on different cases of conflicts in homelands triggering diaspora mobilization, we develop a theory of diaspora formation through processes of conflict deterritorialization. We argue that an armed conflict in the country of origin can trigger specific processes of diaspora formation in the countries of settlement and in the transnational space, depending on the actors involved and the particular context in both the home and host countries. We suggest that this specific non-linear process of diaspora formation can happen at the individual and collective levels, and can both turn a migrant into a diasporic individual as well as mobilize diasporic individuals for collective action. This mobilization, we argue, builds on narratives about and from the homeland, the country of residence, and the transnational space, and can, in turn, lead to conflict autonomization in diaspora settings.

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The Ethnic and Civic Foundations of Citizenship and Identity in the Horn of Africa

By Redie Bereketeab

Volume 11, Issue 1, pages 63-81

The article seeks to analyse the ethic and civic forms of citizenship and identity in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia and to some extent Sudan are pursuing the ethnic model. While Eritrea and Djibouti pursue the civic model, Somalia represents a special case. Ethnic citizenship may guarantee equal rights, self-rule, and self-fulfillment; however, it could also be a cause of division and irredentism. Civic citizenship could create unity and cohesion in polyethnic societies; it could also lead to majority domination. The article contends that both models are relevant where the national level could be served by the civic model and the sub-national is served by the ethnic model. The article concludes that the politics of domination are the main obstacle to the equal rights of citizens, and therefore politics of domination should be replaced by the politics of rights

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Understanding Taliban Resurgence: Ethno-Symbolism and Revolutionary Mobilization

By Kareem Kamel

Volume 15, Issue 1, pages 66-82

This article argues that the post-2001 Taliban resurgence was due to their capacity to act as resourceful ethnic entrepreneurs through selective usage of dominant Pashtun and Islamic mythomoteurs in the process of symbolic cultivation.Through comparative historical analysis and an ethno-symbolist theoretical framework, it shows that the main identity determinants informing the movement’s behaviour have played a fundamental role in the process of revolutionary mobilization. With Afghanistan as their territorial referent, the ideological lenses of Pashtun nationalism and Islamism, coupled with their situational ‘village’ lens, have been used interchangeably by the Taliban to shed light on specific symbolic resources for successful resistance.

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Securitization as a Source of Insecurity: A Ground-Level Look at the Functioning of Europe’s External Border in Lampedusa

By Giacomo Orsini

Volume 16, Issue 1, pages 135-147.

Immigration to Europe increasingly emerges as a core security concern. In response to these growing anxieties the external border of Schengen space of free movement of people was established to limit uncontrolled immigration to the European Union. Yet, looking closely at how this border works in Lampedusa and its surrounding seawaters, one realizes the functioning of the European external border works to undermine the legitimacy of institutions on the island, de facto challenging law enforcement both on the island as well as at sea. Based on the data collected during the six-months-long fieldwork that I conducted on the island, this paper disentangles the complex machinery of the border as it structures in Lampedusa, and presents how such complex governing technology works through authorities’ strategic use of local land and seawaters and their simultaneous neglect for the concerns of the population inhabiting them – representing a major source of insecurity for islanders.

Read the full article here.